"There's Nothing We Cannot Bear If We Have Faith"

And on this rainy Monday, good thing Scranton's not 2 Street -- judging by the vibe, the natives would've gone struttin' with their umbrellas if it were.

That said, it might take half an eternity to load, but on-demand video's up of this afternoon's ordination, its high spirits unflinching even amid the day's downpour.

As the Vespers homily took the better part of an overnight to capture and encode on its own (but was still worth every second spent at it), you're on your own to watch (or fast-forward through) for today's heartfelt closing remarks... but any who do won't be disappointed -- from the story of the chalice (a Hamers special), to the words on the Council, to Joe Bambera's stemwinder call for all hands on deck to bind up the wounds of and within the church, it's another winner, through and through.

There's a story much bigger than the file at hand hidden in the subtext of this day... as there's still no shortage of back-office backlog to be handled, though, it'll have to wait.

On a final coda, having been "mentored" by Cardinal Justin Rigali over his eight-month stint as the apostolic administrator's delegate, Scranton's tenth bishop doesn't just become an adopted member of the bench's St Louis-River City caucus, but the 15th high-hat ordained by Pharaoh's mighty hand.

A week after his 75th birthday, the figure ties Philadelphia's prince with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin for third on the all-time list of Stateside bishop-makers. The Italian twosome are surpassed only by the Golden Age's epic Beantown rivals: Cardinals Richard Cushing (17) and, with a staggering 32 bishop-sons, New York's Francis Spellman... yet again, eternally in a class by himself.

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Tomorrow, the Circuit goes Southwest, to The Big D -- home of the K-Far, a Catholic population numbering some 1.2 million (six times its 1990 size)... and now, for the first time in its history, twin auxiliaries as Bishops-elect Doug Deshotel and Mark Seitz are ordained to serve the booming North Texas church.

The 1pm Central rites in the Catedral Santuario de Guadalupe will be webstreamed.

SVILUPPO: Correcting the above, a third prelate racked up 15 episcopal ordinations: New York's Cardinal Terence Cooke. What's more, though, the trio actually rank fifth; Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore ordained 23, and the founding archbishop of St Louis, Peter Richard Kenrick, raised 16.

PHOTO: Michael J Mullen/Scranton Times-Tribune

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